YouTube on the Tesla Model S

The Model S has the biggest screen in the Tesla lineup: 17 inches, and since the 2021 refresh it sits in landscape, which makes it the closest thing to a TV in a car. CarCinema runs in the built-in browser, so nothing gets plugged in and nothing gets modified.

The earliest cars (2012-2017) run the first-generation media computer with a much slower browser, so playback is smoothest on MCU2 and newer infotainment, including every refreshed Model S.

Three generations of media computer went into the Model S, and they matter more here than the model year on the registration. Cars built from 2012 to early 2018 have MCU1: the browser opens, but it is slow enough that most owners gave up on it years ago, and Tesla never shipped Theater to it. CarCinema loads on MCU1, with a wait before the first frame and a player that feels a step behind your finger. If Tesla fitted the paid MCU2 upgrade to your car, none of that applies.

From 2018 to 2021 the Model S has MCU2, the Intel computer that made the browser usable. The screen is still the tall portrait one, so video plays in a wide band across the middle with dark space above and below. It is perfectly watchable; it is just not the whole screen.

The 2021 refresh (Plaid and Long Range) turned the screen landscape and put a much faster AMD computer behind it. This is the Model S that feels like a TV: the video fills the width, the controls respond instantly and the QR login is done before you have settled into the seat.

A 17-inch landscape display in a Model S sits about an arm’s length from the driver and slightly further from the passenger, which is why the refreshed car is the one people watch a full film on rather than a ten-minute clip. The rear touchscreen in the refreshed Model S is a separate system with its own app set, which varies by market and software version; CarCinema runs on the front screen.

Sound goes through the car’s own speakers, so the Model S audio system does the work. Volume is on the scroll wheel, the same as for music.

A Long Range Model S typically sits at a Supercharger for 20 to 35 minutes, which is a full episode of most things. Send the link from your phone while you are still on the motorway (as a passenger, or before you set off), and by the time the car is plugged in the video is in the library. On a 250 kW stall the session is often shorter than the video, so the seeking control matters: you carry on from the same point at the next stop.